St Lucia maintains ties with Taiwan

JACK-IN-THE-BOX?The move surprised analysts who expected the island to switch its allegiance to China after the Labor Party came to power, accusing Taiwan of meddling

AP, CASTRIES

The island of St Lucia has announced it will maintain diplomatic relations with Taiwan, surprising many who expected the new government to favor China.

St Lucian Prime Minister Kenny Anthony said in an address late on Tuesday that he wanted to explore new opportunities for bilateral cooperation with Taiwan, but that he also wants to maintain fraternal relations with China.

The ruling Labor Party has always allied itself with China in the past, but Anthony said St Lucia needed to stop acting like “a jack-in-the-box jumping from one country to the other every few years.”

St Lucia held relations with Taiwan from 1984 to 1997, with China from 1997 to 2006 and again with Taiwan since 2006.

Anthony said that he planned to foster ties with Beijing, adding that St Lucia’s foreign minister and other government officials are currently in China talking about what he said were issues of mutual interest.

“We simply cannot cast aside our friends,” he said. “It would be both historic and helpful ... if St Lucia could find a way to benefit from ties with both China and Taiwan, however they can.”

Before the Labor Party came to power in December last year, Anthony promised he would make it a priority to review the island’s foreign relations policy, leading political analysts to believe the island would switch to renewed ties with China.

Anthony and his party have repeatedly criticized Taiwan’s close ties with the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), and Anthony said his government would launch an audit into Taipei’s financial assistance to the UWP and its lawmakers while the party was in power.

During his address to the nation, Anthony also accused former Taiwanese ambassador Tom Chou (周台竹) of meddling in domestic affairs and warned the new ambassador to respect the island’s laws and not interfere in local politics.

Since re-establishing ties with Taiwan in 2006, St Lucia has received numerous grants and loans to finance roadwork and various economic development projects, including a meat processing plant.

Both Taiwan and China have sought to establish alliances with Caribbean countries in recent years.

Taiwan currently has 23 diplomatic allies, five of them in the Caribbean, including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis and St Vincent and the Grenadines.